Expanding On The Skull: Drawing Female Faces!

Drawing female faces is a little bit more easier than drawing male faces. Unless we are drawing older women, the lean skin of the younger females doesn't stress all the facial features as much as we would like.

That does not mean that we can bypass drawing the planes. It is still an integral process of creating light and shadow.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are exceptions to every rule. When I give a description of what the female face looks like, this only applies very loosely and on general terms. That is, not all women will fall into the descriptions given.

Nevertheless, it is still a good starting point to differentiate the female face from the male face.

1. The framework

You need to be aware of slight variations when drawing female faces. The first starts with the eyebrows. It is usually less thick and slightly higher than the male face.

The eyes are also a bit bigger as well. The entire eyebrow ridge itself is not stressed as much. Just light shadows will do just fine.

The lips are slightly smaller. To balance it out, most of the emphasis is on the lower lips. You want to make it a bit more puffy than normal.

The last key difference is the entire chin structure. You want to create a more rounded chin without giving too much emphasis on the cheekbones. Just a few light lines are good enough.

In short, a male's face is more angular while a woman's face is more rounded. You want to emphasis this difference as much as possible.

2. Creating your own head

Drawing female heads is the same for drawing all types of heads. Just like the male head that was introduced in the previous lesson, you want to build upon the simple framework of the head in general. Memorize where the intersections and face divisions are.

With your digital art tools, begin drawing a rough guide.

You want to start with the middle intersection that divides the face into four quadrants. From there, measure out where the nose, forehead, lips, and ears will be places.

Don't forget your cranium. This particular circular sphere will guide you to where you should draw the lower part of the head. When you are familiar with all the division points, you can draw the head in many different positions without any references easily.

3. Creating the planes

Focus on the indentations of the eye regions such as the eyebrow ridge and the nose bridge. From there, protrude the planes outwards to form the nose.

Where it differs the most is around the lower part of the face since the chin structure of the female face is less stressed than the male face. You want to focus the planes around the cheekbones. However, that is as far as you should go.

Basically, mix a few rounded corners and edges into your planes when drawing female faces in this step.

4. Building the face

Now that you have the framework for the face and planes for depth, it's time for drawing female faces! Concentrate on each individual traits of the face beginning the eyes.

Then, continue onto the nose and move downwards to the rest of the face. At anytime, round of bits of the facial features so it is not so angular.

Create curvatures for the chin area and around the cheekbones. Draw lightly with your digital stylus in those areas as to not stress the facial features. Make sure the mouth is small, yet plumped.

We are not going for anything fancy except to get an idea positioning, perspectives, and proportions. Constantly ask yourself how would those features look when the face is tilted in one direction versus another.

If anytime you feel slight discomfort or that the lines don't flow as well as you would have liked, step back and study the female face in magazines and other reference materials you can find laying around.

Your skills should always reflect your understanding of the female head. Take your time to truly study it and it'll show through in your digital drawings!

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